His name was Karl Benz and he lived from 1844 to 1929. You've heard his last name before, as the second half of Mercedes-Benz. And he has the highest honor a car lover could ever hope for: he produced "the first car in the world." It was called the Patent Motorwagen, and it was introduced to the world in 1886. It only had three wheels (Benz would later figure out the best method to incorporate two wheels in the front of the vehicle with a superior steering mechanism), and its motor was barely strong enough to reach one horsepower (maybe we will try to explain what that means in another blog entry).

There were all sorts of vehicles on the road at the time - horse drawn were the most prolific, but there were also steam powered - but Benz's was the first that effectively used the gasoline the world has become dependent upon now. It could go a dizzying ten miles per hour with no elevation. We would guess it struggled up even the slightest hills. Now, it is proudly displayed at the Mercedes-Benz museum, along with one or two cars made since that extremely important day in 1886. Time for a road trip!